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Old 06-30-2009, 04:18 AM
Eb0la11 Eb0la11 is offline
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Default What kind of salt

Hey guys, I just bought some Instant Ocean Reef Crystals from Elite Aquatics here. Colby said that he uses it in his whole system and I plan on a reef tank.

Ive read that regular instant ocean needs to be supplemented, whats the case with the reef crystals ones?
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Old 06-30-2009, 07:02 AM
xtreme xtreme is offline
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Reef Crystals need to be supplemented as well. IME alkalinity is good but calcium and magnesium is low.
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Old 06-30-2009, 10:04 AM
Red Deer Reptiles Red Deer Reptiles is offline
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Thumbs up what salt

marine enviroment or bio sea salts work the best they score 90% AND 100% ON TEST CHARTS. check it out. dan
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Old 06-30-2009, 12:16 PM
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Just finishing my bucket of R/C and I;m going back to just regular I/O salt. Found had to suppliment just as much, and Alk was high on my bucket, really high
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Umm, a tank or 5
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Old 06-30-2009, 12:34 PM
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I would stick with IO, one of the best all round salts. you need to bump the Mg and Ca up a bit but thats it. lots of people have switched to others and a good chunk have gone back to IO.

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Old 06-30-2009, 03:39 PM
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It depends what you want. If you want plug n play salt, Reefers Best, for me, doesn't need supplementing. It's expensive though. IO is a good standard salt that has topped the popularity charts for 20 years. It's not expensive, but you might need to add stuff. When I used it, I ran a large Ca reactor, and never added anything to my salt. My tank did fine. So maybe go with IO, see how it works for you, then decide if something is missing.
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Old 06-30-2009, 04:01 PM
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Yeah I would have to agree. I think IO is popular because it's cheap, available everywhere and always around and probably always will be. However I personally don't care for it because essentially every element is low including Ca, Mg, K, and so on. So when you want to use properly you got to mix up a large portion in a container then aerate it overnight, then supplement, and then verify. RC is essentially the same as regular IO, it's not worth the extra money IMO.

I prefer the plug and play, RBS. I add it directly to the sump and use the top off to add the make up water. The levels are good and consistent and I've never had a problem. If I did this with other salts I would be having huge problems. RBS also doesn't leave the white residue behind like other salts including IO.

Last edited by sphelps; 06-30-2009 at 04:03 PM.
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Old 06-30-2009, 04:10 PM
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Anyone have any idea what the K measures out of the bucket for IO and RC?
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Old 06-30-2009, 04:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xtreme View Post
Anyone have any idea what the K measures out of the bucket for IO and RC?
I believe it's around 300
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Old 06-30-2009, 05:51 PM
Eb0la11 Eb0la11 is offline
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Thanks guys, I'll have to get a couple more test kits and maybe some supplements. Which ones do you guys suggest I get if I have IO Reef Crystals?

I find it weird that a fish store uses it exclusively with really nice results but there are these problems. I'll ask Colby if he supplements next time Im there.
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